Rail Journey yesterday time table changed

Maysie

hi, i bought tickets through virgin trains (for virgin trains) on 28th september. For our return journey home on the 28th October no bargain tickets cost £66 (only £21 on way) Journey was newcastle upon tyne to Oxford. Tickets stated train time of 14.40.

Got there 40minutes early like you do to find out its all been changed

There was a train we could have caught (me and 2 kids) but i would have had to change at birmingham it was around the right time. I wasn't given any info about changing or anything so i asked about the straight through train i had booked. I was told the time table had been changed and it was all new today. The next train was an hour later at 15.40. So not happy but hey its only an hour later.....!?!? Phoned my mum to arrange a new pick up time in oxford. Say bye to my boyfriend who was only given 45minutes to park for free before he would get a £12 parking ticket form newcastsle station (stupid system). Getting bit tearful the thought of extra hr on train with kids and being stuck with to much luggage and bargain buys getting onto train.

so should i have been informed? How long in advance should they have known of this change?

Train was in early and luckily so we find seats after some help from virgin staff at 3.50. I knew other train i had originally booked got in at 19.15 so assumed this one would get in at 20.15 WRONG WRONG WRONG

Hear annoucement that its actually 21.13!!!! WHAT i thought i was hearing wrongly.

We had left my boyfriends at 1.30 and would have be in oxford till 9.13. To say i was annoyed is putting it mildly.

Kept calm for kids but i was gutted. They were brillant for first 2 hours the 3rd hour started to drag and so on and so on. We ran out of food and drink supplies and left it to late for the train shop it closed at 7pm dunno if this is normal rarely travel by train but an annoncement would have been nice. Around 7.30 my son got overtired and started screaming as i tried to stop him climbing seats and trying to turn on the broken lights grrrrrrrrrr.

O i nearly forgot we had drunken, chanting ,football fans in the corrider for 2 hours ! sheffield to coventry i think.

well at least it made it into oxford on time at 9.13 but it was a hell of a day. Got home at 9.45 kids straight to bed .

so my question is should i have been informed of changes? I would have booked a train earlier in the day if i had known definately. How long would they have known? I had no calls while i was away or no emails. I had a later journey than planned and a slower train :eek: :mad: I spent more than if everything had been as planned.

black-saturn

Write to the train company and complain. Enclose your ticket and put everything in the letter you have put on here. You will get your money back.

I travel to London almost every weekend and they nearly always make a balls up and I end up being delayed. I know that if your journey was delayed by more than 30 minutes from the time you booked for you are entitled to the money back (it's actually vouchers but they are valid for a year). They know about timetable changes months before they start so they should have told you about that.

hjb123

Check out the passenger charter from Virgin Trains here. Sounds like you have had a terrible journey which I guess makes it worse when you have two small kids with you.
From the virgin site:

If a delay to a Virgin train causes an hour or more delay to your journey (45 minutes in the case of a train on the London -Birmingham/Wolverhampton services) we will reimburse you with National Rail vouchers equal to 25% of the total fare paid for the affected portion (outwards/return) of the journey. Alternatively, if you are delayed on a Virgin train by more than 2 hours we will reimburse you with National Rail vouchers equal to the full price paid for the affected portion (outwards/return) of the journey.

I was delayed by just under 3 hours with Virgin at the beginning of October and we got a claim form and sent it off and got the money back (well in rail vouchers) for the affected journey.

black-saturn

I write to them every time they make a mistake which is quite often. So often in fact for the last 2 weeks they have been paying me to use the train!!

MarkyMarkD

I don't believe that ANY rail company notifies customers of timetable changes, and I don't believe that they are required to, either.

Changes to timetables occur all the time due to engineering works and the like.

The only way to reduce the impact of such changes is to check the timetable immediately before you go to get the train (or as close as possible as you can).

I don't believe that Virgin will consider they should pay compensation, as the train operated 100% in line with the (revised) timetable.

The National Rail website refers to a situation between Derby and Chesterfield, which I think is the cause of your extended journey time:

Engineering work between Derby and Chesterfield on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 October 2006

Start date: Saturday 28 October 2006
End date: Sunday 29 October 2006
TOC/s Affected: Central Trains, Midland Mainline, Virgin Trains
Description: Central Trains services between Liverpool and Norwich/Cambridge will operate between Liverpool and Nottingham and between Nottingham and Norwich/Cambridge. Services will not call at Chesterfield. Central will provide road transport between Chesterfield and Alfreton and advise to use other TOC's replacement road transport between Chesterfield and Sheffield

Midland Mainline services will be unable to call at Chesterfield with road transport in operation between Sheffield - Chesterfield - Derby

Virgin Trains services are diverted to not call at Chesterfield extending journey times by up to 60 minutes. A replacement road transport will operate between Derby and Chesterfield

In most instances, this information would have been available on https://www.nationalrail.co.uk in advance.

There is also a page: http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/engineering/default.aspx on Virgin Trains' own site showing when engineering work is planned, and the impact on services.

Maysie

They must have known in advance of these works surely? The revised new timetable sounded like it came into force that day. It didnt' sound like a temporary timetable because of chesterfield. There was nothing up in the station to say of any problems i would be very surprised if everybody got onto the interent or decided to hold for x amount of minutes just to check a ticket bought 4 weeks in advance had been changed or not. You just assume its right unless you hear or see somehting different at the station. I think virgin should have had a pop up or a extra page to say when i booked as it was on the line concerned. I am still going to complain i will let you know what happens.

MarkyMarkD

If they know about engineering works, the online timetables are updated as soon as.

There are sometimes engineering works which over-run a few extra weekends, or which are unscheduled due to track damage, or whatever.